1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to food preparation devices and more specifically to a support ring structure for supporting a wok cooking vessel on top of a cooking range.
2. Art Background
Over the past few decades, health conscious Americans have turned to the East in search of cooking techniques using a minimum amount of fats and oils. One such technique involves the use of a Chinese wok, which usually requires cooking of vegetables and meats for very short time periods at high heats. In a typical stir-fry recipe, the cooking time is four minutes or less. The health benefits of short-time cooking with minimal use of fats are substantial. Less fat is absorbed by the food being cooked in a wok than with Western methods and consequently the fat intake of the consumer is minimized. In addition to the health benefits, the flavor of the food items, particularly of the vegetables, is substantially retained by the high temperature sealing of the food surfaces.
The traditional wok is also very useful because it is easily cleaned between courses. The rounded smooth metal surface may be wiped out or dumped for cleaning with very little residue. Thus, it is possible to cook multiple course meals in the same vessel.
One of the main disadvantages to the use of the wok by modern Western cooks is that it does not adapt well to use on electric and gas ranges. The wok was developed to be placed directly on hollowed-out sections of coals on the ground and/or on rings with a wide base fire built underneath. However, the cooking surfaces utilized in the United States are typically flat in order to deliver heat to flat-bottomed cooking vessels such as frying pans or sauce pans. The spherical surface of the wok does not adapt well to cooking on modern electric and gas ranges.
Commercial ranges for use in Chinese restaurants accommodate woks on the range tops by providing burner cylinders, at the bottom of which sit burners for heating the wok. The wok itself rests on top of the cylinder. Part of the wok is raised above the edge of the cylinder to create a gap through which air can reach the burner. In conventional wok ranges, this separation is often provided by steel studs welded to the cylinder. Frequently only two or three studs are welded to the top edge of the cylinder near the back of the range so that when the wok rests in the cylinder, the wok is tilted towards the cook and air enters through the gap created near the back of the range top.
One problem with the use of studs to set off the wok from the burner cylinder is that the studs dent the wok as the wok is shaken during cooking. After prolonged use, the wok may become so severely dented that it may have to be replaced.
One solution to this problem provides for the welding of a circular ring onto the burner cylinder, the ring being set off from the cylinder top by a number of studs. However, although the welded ring minimizes the denting of the wok, one disadvantage of the ring is that it eventually burns down due to high temperatures used in wok cooking. Replacement of these rings requires an expensive field service call to weld a new ring onto the burner cylinder.